


Peekaboo

by Duck_Life



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Babysitting, Chaos, F/F, Gen, Pre-Series, Snacks & Snack Food
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 19:31:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8114719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: Garnet's watching Steven alone for the first time- but she's not really alone.





	

He’s on the kitchen counter. He’s in the fridge. He’s clambering onto the warp pad. He’s on the ladder. He’s on the couch. He’s outside. He’s back inside. He’s on the roof. He’s on the floor. He’s on top of the television set.

Garnet’s future vision can’t even keep up with the kid; it’s giving her a headache. Every place she sees Steven crawling over to becomes fuzzy, changes, he’s there and back again. For a one-year-old, Steven travels pretty much at the speed of light.

Garnet zips up the ladder to the loft to catch him before he hurts himself, but he slips out of her grasp once again, leaving a trail of mayhem in his wake. “Come on, little one,” she coaxes, chasing after him. “Want some applesauce? Yummy applesauce?”

He doesn’t.

Steven’s back down the ladder, enthusiastically exploring the couch cushions. She’s sure she’s got him but the speed demon’s already crawling off toward the window. “Oh, no you don’t.” Garnet lunges for him and finally, _finally_ , catches him. “Ha! Now let’s just sit tight and wait for Pearl and Amethyst to get back.” She sets him down and turns back to make sure the window is shut tight.

That was her mistake.

When she turns back around a second later, Steven’s vanished. “Steven?” she calls, eyes sweeping the room. “ _Steven_.” No sign of him.

Garnet’s searching the room, trying to figure out how to explain to Greg and the gems how she managed to lose their son, when she finds Steven hiding behind the warp pad, smiling.

“You little monster,” she says, scooping him up with a grin. Vanishing her visor, she blinks at him, sticks her tongue out. Steven giggles. “Let’s have some of that applesauce,” she declares, carrying him to the kitchen and plunking him in his highchair.

She keeps her back to the fridge, eyes on him, as she reaches in to grab a container of applesauce. Still watching Steven, she rips off the top and trashes it, and then places it on Steven’s tray.

He blinks, looks from the applesauce to Garnet, back to the applesauce, back to Garnet. He bangs his little baby fist, and then Garnet realizes what she forgot: a spoon.

“Here,” she says, grabbing a spoon for him. But when she spins around— he’s gone again. “Steven!”

Garnet sprints around the counter and finds him making a beeline for the ladder. She groans and stomps over to snatch him up. “Steven,” Garnet sighs, “you could at least make it easier on me. I’ve only got two…” –she glances down at her gems— “… hands.”

* * *

 

About a minute later, Steven’s back in his highchair. Ruby’s playing This Little Piggy with his toes and Sapphire’s grabbing a spoon.

“He’s so _little_ ,” Ruby says while Steven giggles. “Is he gonna get any bigger than this?”

“Yes,” Sapphire says. Ruby gives her a boost so she can sit on the counter and feed Steven.

“But _how_ big?”

“Bigger.” She smiles, watching his little eyes light up like stars when she gives him a spoonful of applesauce. “He really is cute. We shouldn’t have called him a monster.”

“Aw, but he is a monster,” Ruby jokes, tickling his feet and making him shriek with laughter. “A _teeny tiny_ Steven-monster!”

“Stop it,” Sapphire says, but she’s laughing too. “He’s going to get applesauce everywhere.” At that moment, Steven flings the container of applesauce off of his highchair and it splatters across the kitchen. “Told you.”

Ruby sighs. “I’ll clean it up.”

* * *

 

Once the applesauce has all been wiped away, Ruby goes to join Sapphire and Steven on the couch. “He keeps trying to chew my hair,” Sapphire says, tugging a lock of hair out of the baby’s mouth once again.

“That’s just because you’re so sweet,” Ruby says, and kisses her. “Lemme see him. Come here, Steven.” She scooches over on the couch so she can set Steven between them. “Wanna play Peekaboo?” She covers up his eyes. “Where’s Steven? Wheeeere’s Steven? There he is!” Steven giggles. Ruby covers up her own eyes. “Where’s Ruby? Where’d Ruby go?” She takes her hand away. “There I am!”

Sapphire watches, smiling slightly, as Ruby entertains Steven for almost a half hour with the game. They’ve finally got him sitting still, completely enthralled in Ruby “vanishing” and appearing again.

“I want to try,” Sapphire says, turning Steven to face her. She puts her hands over her face. “Where’s Sapphire? Where am I? Where’d Sapphire go?” Steven giggles. And then Sapphire sweeps her hands away from her face, revealing her single eye. “Here I am!”

And Steven bursts into tears.

“Oh no,” Sapphire says, hands fluttering over him. “Oh no, I broke it.”

“Aw, come here.” Ruby tugs Steven closer to her and rocks him slightly. “It’s okay. Sapphire’s only got one eye. Just like you’ve only got one nose.” She boops him. Steven sniffles. “Sapphire’s okay, though. See?”

“I am fine, Steven.”

“Go ahead, show ’im your eye again.”

“ _No_.”

Steven’s still crying softly. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” Ruby reassures him. “She’s not scary. She’s _beautiful_.” Even after all this time, it still makes Sapphire blush. “You know what would cheer you up, Steven? Why don’t you chew on some more of Sapphy’s hair?”

“I don’t _want_ him to chew on my hair.”

“Mm, see? Yummy hair.”

“ _Ruby_.”

Steven doesn’t seem interested in Sapphire’s hair anymore, but at least he’s stopped crying.

“It’s okay,” Sapphire promises. “I’m not going to show you my eye again.”

“He’ll get used to it,” Ruby says, leaning back against the couch and watching them. “Someday.”

* * *

 

When Pearl and Amethyst get back, Garnet greets them with a big grin, holding an equally happy Steven in her arms. “How’d it go?” Amethyst says, showing off her new axe perilously close to Garnet and the baby.

“Fantastic.”

Pearl steps off the warp pad looking apologetic. “Sorry we left you alone with him,” she says.

“You didn’t,” Garnet says, and then drops him into Pearl’s arms. “But _you_ have to put him to bed.” And she lopes off to her room.


End file.
